My Genealogy Hound

J. ELLWOOD LEE. One of the most important industrial enterprises of Montgomery county and at the same time one of the youngest is the plant of the J. Ellwood Lee Company at Conshohocken. This business was established by J. Ellwood Lee, who was born in Conshohocken in 1860. He is the oldest son of Bradford Adams Lee, who has been a resident of Conshohocken for more than a half century, and Sarah A. (Raysor) Lee, also a resident of the same town. Through his paternal grandmother, Mr. Lee is connected with the family of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and through his paternal grandfather with the New Jersey and Virginia branches of the Lee family.

E. Bradford Adams Lee, father of J. Ellwood Lee, was born in New Castle county, in the state of Delaware, October 29, 1838. He is a son of Thomas and Ann N. (Adams) Lee. Ann Nottingham (Adams) Lee, grandmother, was a daughter of Edmund and Jane Adams. Her father, Edmund Adams, was born May 20, 1769. His wife Jane, whom he married June 14, 1792, was born September 2, 1772. Their children were: James, born December 1, 1793; Elizabeth, born October 21, 1794; Mary, born March 24, 1797; Rebecca, born December 23, 1800; Jonathan, born July 26, 1803; Elisha, born November 26, 1805; Ann Nottingham Adams, who was the mother of Elisha Bradford Adams Lee, born February 16, 1808. Jane Adams died February 16, 1845. Her husband died January 28, 1817.

Elisha Bradford Adams Lee, father of Mr. Lee, came to Pennsylvania at the age of four years, his parents removing from Delaware in 1842 and establishing a home in Conshohocken. There he had but limited educational advantages, being employed from the age of eleven years in earning his own livelihood. For more than thirty-five years he was engaged in the rolling mills of J. Wood and Brother. For a time he entered into mercantile business. Later he became interested in business with his son, and he has been employed with the J. Ellwood Lee Company in various responsible positions. Mr. Lee married July 3, 1859, at Conshohocken, Miss Sarah A. Raysor. She was the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Culp) Raysor, and was born March 8, 1841. Their children: John Ellwood, subject of this sketch; Conard Berk, born April 23, 1862, who married, October 12, 1887, Anna May Hendren, and died May 8, 1897, leaving no children; Mary Elizabeth, born January 20, 1865, married June 14, 1899, William Cleaver; Maria B., born August 1, 1870; Harry Adams, born November 3, 1879. Mrs. Bradford Lee died July 8, 1886. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a woman whose consistent life and many Christian qualities endeared her to her family and friends.

Thomas Lee, grandfather, was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1799. He married, June 11, 1829, Ann Nottingham Adams. Their children were as follows: Edmund Adams, born April 23, 1830; William, born October 21, 1831; Daniel W. Coxe, born February 12, 1834; Mary Jane, born July 5, 1836; Elisha B. Adams, father of J. Ellwood Lee. Mrs. Thomas Lee died October 24, 1844. Thomas Lee married a second wife, who was Rebecca N. Adams, a sister of his first wife. There were no children by the second marriage. Mrs. Rebecca Lee died July 18, 1848, and Mr. Lee married a third time, September 8, 1849, Sarah Logue. By this marriage there was one daughter, Elizabeth Lee. The mother died July 29, 1854, her husband having died eight days previously, both being victims of cholera, which was then raging at Conshohocken.

J. Ellwood Lee was born November 15, 1860. He received his education at the Conshohocken High School, being a graduate of the class of 1879. Immediately after his graduation he entered the surgical instrument business in Philadelphia, with William Snowden, remaining with him for nearly five years. On April 12, 1882, he married Miss Jennie W. Cleaver, youngest daughter of Mrs. A. J. Cleaver. In November, 1883, Mr. Lee broke off his connections with Mr. Snowden in the Philadelphia business, and branched out for himself, starting in the attic of his home in Conshohocken, to make bandages, ligatures, and a few like surgical necessities. From this small beginning sprang the present great industrial enterprise of which Mr. Lee is now general manager and treasurer. The goods which are manufactured by this company are known throughout the entire civilized world. The capital originally invested by Mr. Lee in starting the enterprise was $29.85 (the company still owns the book in which this original entry was made), and the capital now employed to carry on the business is nearly a million of dollars. The annual sales now amount to more than the sum named, showing what can be done from a small beginning. The superior quality of the products of the J. Ellwood Lee Company has created a wide demand for them. Soon after beginning the work in which it is now so extensively engaged, Mr. Lee erected a two-story shop, and fitted it with the appliances needed for the business. In 1887a three-story mill of stone was erected, much larger than the older structure. In 1888 the rapidly expanding business requiring still more complete arrangements for its operations, Mr. Lee formed the J. Ellwood Lee Company, with a capital of $75,000, which has been increased from time to time as necessity required, until it has reached the figures already mentioned. The company owns many valuable patents, a large number of them the product of Mr. Lee’s inventive genius, he being one who can very readily adapt the means at hand to the end required. He has been uniformly successful in meeting the needs of surgeons in any particular direction required, constructing the article desired in such a manner that it is the best possible for the purpose for which it is to be employed. The perforated metallic splint is an illustration of this adaptation of means to ends. It has superseded almost entirely the old, ill-contrived wooden splint, being light, flexible and easily kept in place. One secret of the remarkable success which Mr. Lee has achieved is his ability to meet any and all emergencies that are likely to arise in connection with the science of modern surgery. Besides surgical instruments, the establishment manufactures also antiseptic preparations of all kinds and many appliances coming more properly under the head of surgical supplies for the use of hospitals, surgeons and the medical profession generally. The establishment has agencies in all the large cities of this country, in fact in all large cities throughout the world. Mr. Lee owes his success in life to his inventive genius, his persistency in his undertakings, and his capacity for business. The management of an establishment like the J. Ellwood Lee Company is a task that demands executive ability of a high order. He directs the operations that are in progress with consummate skill, and is thoroughly at home in all the details of a business which he has built up from the small beginning already mentioned, until now it is one of the largest and most flourishing of its kind in the world.

Mrs. J. Ellwood Lee is the daughter of Jonathan and Anna J. (Wood) Cleaver. She was born October 8, 1860. Their children: Mary Cleaver, born July 29, 1884, died February 7, 1893; Elsie, born January 19, 1888; J. Ellwood, Jr., born August 13, 1891; Herbert B., born June 11, 1900, and died February 11, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Lee, with their two surviving children, reside in Conshohocken.

Mr. Lee has been a member of the town council since 1898. He was chosen by acclamation a delegate to the national Republican convention for the re-nomination of President Roosevelt. Mr. Lee is a member of Calvary Protestant Episcopal church, Conshohocken, having been a vestryman since 1888. He is also a member of the Penn Club, and of the Pencoyd Club, of Wissahickon. He is of a very social temperament and fond of athletic sports.

As a Republican Mr. Lee has a deep interest in the success of the candidates and principles of the party. He has not sought or held office, aside from what has been mentioned, his business absorbing his attention to the exclusion of such matters. He is always alert to the interests of Conshohocken, and ever ready to do what he can to promote the welfare of the community of which he is an honored member.